This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Full house with a modern twist

Jean-Paul and Mary-Anne Bédard sold their dream home to help their son and his wife buy a house in Toronto

After much soul-searching and house-hunting, parents Jean-Paul and Mary-Anne Bedard, right, found the perfect house to share with son Noah, left, and his wife Jackie Belardi. (Cole Burston / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

Clean lines and modern style suround Mary-Anne and Jean-Paul Bedard on their top two floors of the house. (Cole Burston / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

A more traditional style suits Jackie Belardi and Noah Bedard in their home, the bottom two floors of the house. (Cole Burson / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

Jean-Paul Bedard and Mary-Anne Bedard, rear, with their son Noah and his wife Jackie Belardi at the home they share in Cabbagetown. (Cole Burston / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

"We all bonded, and it was a bigger challenge than usual, so we made it our mission to find the perfect house," says real estate agent Lani Fumerton.

Jean-Paul and Mary-Anne Bedard saw themselves growing into retirement in this house, their previous home in the Upper Beach. Instead, they sold it to help finance their son's entry into the city's real-estate market.

By Ben TraversStar Touch

Sat., Nov. 14, 2015

Jean-Paul Bédard was at the table having dinner when he had a brainwave. Depending who you asked, his flash was one of two things: either a brilliant solution to the GTA’s prohibitive property market, or just totally bananas.

Article Continued Below

Bedard, 49, was at the table with his wife Mary-Anne, 48, and their son and daughter-in-law, Noah, 25, and Jackie, 26. The young couple had a plan: “House, baby, open a restaurant.”

But they were stalled at the start. Like many young adults in the city, their efforts to get into the real estate market had been, said Noah, “terrifying!”

The numbers were steep and the terrain littered with the obstacles for first-time homebuyers: the down payment; the reality of paying CMHC mortgage insurance; and the prospect of having tenants to subsidize their investment.

Jean-Paul, a teacher and writer, and Mary-Anne, a director in the City of Toronto’s housing department, had toyed with ways to help. But freeing up a cash loan would have required taking on more debt on their own house in the Upper Beach. It was a beloved empty nest — a lovely, low-maintenance little place with manageable finances. They felt house rich. It was a place to grow old in.

But the best laid plans ...

At dinner, Mary-Anne recalls, “Jean-Paul just piped up without consulting anyone and said: ‘We should buy a house together!’ ”

And not just any house, but a modern twist on the multi-generational home: One roof, two separate spaces, two separate mortgages.

“I was looking at him like: ‘What are you saying?’ ” laughs Mary-Anne. ‘We live in the perfect home!’ ”

“I thought Mary-Anne was going to throw her wine across the table,” Jean-Paul admits about his wife of 28 years.

The plan was this: Jean-Paul and Mary-Anne would sell their place and cover the down payment on a collectively owned home. Noah, a chef at Toronto’s Drake Hotel, and Jackie, a server at the Drake, would start building equity by taking a mortgage on their stake in the building. And in seven to 10 years, they would sell the property and divide profits according to each couple’s ownership share — leaving Noah and Jackie with a down payment for a place of their own.

“The main idea was, one: to help them not waste their money in rent; and two: to get them on the property ladder,” says Jean-Paul. “Every week it felt like it was getting further and further away from them.”

Swayed by the plan’s big-hearted logic and the prospect of family time, with an eye on future grandchildren, Jean-Paul and Mary-Anne came to a philosophical conclusion: If you can’t bet on your own kid, who can you bet on?

Real estate lawyers being another demographic to bet on, the foursome drafted a legal agreement, starting at “catastrophe and working backwards,” and then teamed with Lani Fumerton of Re/Max Hallmark Wright Group to find a house that could satisfy all four investors.

Today, six months after moving in together, they are hanging around Jean-Paul and Mary-Anne’s upstairs apartment in the red-brick Victorian row-home the two couples eventually bought together for $990,000 in Cabbagetown South. It’s a sometimes-seedy neighbourhood that Fumerton jokes is like “Manhattan, but with an edge.”

They bake oatmeal chocolate chip cookies together, completely from memory and in under eight minutes. It’s obvious from their irreverent ease together that the bet was a good one.

(A few deep-seated differences do bubble up: Does the perfect cookie finish cooking, still molten, on the counter? Or is that technique itself a little half-baked?)

The building has everything they figured a happy coexistence required: nicely finished apartments; access to transit; the rare, well-finished basement; room for a new generation; and, of course, privacy.

The move has totally transformed their lives and relationships in ways both material and more subtly profound.

Downstairs, Noah and Jackie live in the main floor-plus-basement unit, settled in a space they are invested in for the first time in their lives, learning home ownership and with people to share the bills. Their plan is within reach.

“We have a house, the baby seems possible,” says Jackie. “We have a support system. Now I can see a future.”

“And it will be easier for us to get a business loan now that we have something they can take away from us,” Noah quips.

Upstairs, their future babysitters have downsized to fit into their second- and third-floor suite, shedding furniture and thousands of books.

For all, the real sense of freedom seems to come from somewhere else. Their time together is more spontaneous, more authentic — no more capital-V visits. And in tying themselves to one another in such a substantial way, the ground has shifted. They aren’t really parents and kids, anymore, but partners.

“We had to go into this as equals,” says Jean-Paul. “It’s a neat feeling relating to your kid as an adult. And I think Noah is looking at us differently, too.”

“It’s both self-confirming and liberating that we can bet on bringing out the best in each other.”

*

Agent of change

Lani Fumerton, 41, with Re/Max Hallmark Wright Group, found the foursome a home they all love. Here’s how she did it:

Q: What did you think of Jean-Paul, Mary-Anne, Noah and Jackie’s plan to invest in a house together?

A: I thought it was brilliant ... They joked around a lot. Like, “Are we crazy?” I didn’t even think about it. They were so enthusiastic, and their personalities are such that I knew they would have a great experience living in the same building together.

Q: Their model is really creative, but obviously not for everyone. What conditions need to be in place?

A: No. 1, you need the right dynamics in place within the group.

Everyone also has to be on the same page — in terms of what they want, and how they will manage the house. Things like repairs. Do they get split evenly? Who organizes them?

Those sorts of things need to be mapped out ahead of time, as well as what happens when somebody decides they want to sell.

But I think it allows first timers to get into the market, and it allows them a better space than they would normally be able to afford. It’s a great condo alternative. You’re sharing the cost of maintenance. If you’re a first timer and you have to do your roof – you just have to pay for half of it.

For Jean-Paul and Mary-Anne, I think they loved the idea of helping the kids achieve that dream of home ownership earlier than they would have been able to, and helping them build equity earlier. And having everyone under one roof, seeing the kids more often ... When there are grandkids one day, that could be a lot of fun!

Q: House-hunting doesn’t often involve two couples who are also buyers. What was different this time around?

A: Because all four people were going to live in the house, it was more personal. We had to make sure that nobody felt like it was a sacrifice to move to a shared home. Especially Jean-Paul and Mary-Anne, who were moving from a great house that they loved, and were doing this to help their son and daughter-in-law.

Noah wanted a nice kitchen, or the possibility of a nice kitchen. Jackie wanted two bedrooms, but without a master in the basement, which can be tough to find. And Jean-Paul and Mary-Anne just wanted a nice, bright space, and something a little more interesting.

Q: How many different hats did you have to wear?

A: We always joke that we’re part-time therapists, decorators, all those things. I started out with my listening hat on . . . When we started to look, I became more of an adviser ... I was also a cheerleader . . . I needed to balance everybody and keep everybody focused and positive. Once we found the home, I was an agent, strategizing the best approach and negotiating the deal. And then, I’d like to say: Friend!

Q: The Bédards say you that you basically became a part of the family?

A: I’m really lucky in that I have worked with amazing clients across the board, but in this case, the nature of the family and their dynamic — they are just so warm, and just such a great family. I love them!

Q: How is the GTA market different for millennials than the one their parents entered 20 or 30 years ago?

A: The main issue is that the cost of living is higher. Housing prices are incredibly high. It becomes more difficult to get into the market. But luckily mortgage rates are so much lower than in our parents’ generation that it’s possible to get the financing to do it, which is great.

The other thing I think has changed is that it’s easier to build equity in a home because prices are going up substantially. Twenty or thirty years ago, housing prices didn’t rise that much, so you weren’t building as much equity as you are now. Hopefully people are seeing that, and seeing why it’s key to get into the market as early as they can to take advantage of that.

Q: What obstacles do people run into getting into the market for the first time?

A: It’s the down payment. For Noah and Jackie, that’s what was holding them back.

Q: What advice or strategies do you have for people pondering a first move into the market?

A: You need to make sure before you start out that you have a really in-depth conversation with a bank or broker to make sure you are approved and know everything that’s involved – like mortgage insurance, or the land transfer tax – which you may not have been expecting.

Get educated. Get comfortable with your financial picture and the potential costs. If you are buying a house, what would the average yearly maintenance and repairs be on that house? Property taxes, utilities… they can be substantial. You need to know that you’re not over-extending yourself.

The process can also become quite emotional and heated, especially if you’re in competition on properties. You need to know where to draw the line, because you don’t want to be over-extended and house poor. People can be approved [by banks] for quite a bit more than what they would be comfortable handling on a monthly basis.

I also think it’s a smart idea to get in sooner rather than later. It’s not getting any easier. The prices are not going down. Building equity is key.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com